Shadows Call
by SequoiaBigandTall
Summary: The Black Swan is secretive. The Black Swan is mysterious. The Black Swan is shady. And those are three of Audrilla's strongest qualities.


**Yeah, lame summary. I'm actually OK at summaries, but I'm not EXACTLY sure where to go with this.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

A girl wearing a Foxfire Level 5 uniform walked briskly through the hallways. Light brown hair falling down to her waist, she headed toward the Leapmaster 5000. When the line if students came into view, one pair of teal eyes caught her off guard.

FITZ NEVER LOOKS AT ME! she thought, bewildered.

But those breathtaking eyes continued to bore into her. Then he smiled at her.

Oh. My. Gosh.

She blushed, but no one could tell. She had a way of hiding her feelings underneath her skin when she wanted to, so no one could take advantage if her. The only exception were certain Empaths at times. She inwardly groaned. What a pain. It seemed to be a game between all the Empaths to see who can tell what she's feeling. It irritated her so! All the "accidental" bumping from random people got extremely bothersome.

But she had recently discovered a secret way of outwitting them.

When it was her turn to light leap, she rubbed the skin of her left wrist anxiously—out of habit—before yelling, "Starsprick!"

The feathery light enveloped her, then dropped her at the bottom of a hill which had unnaturally formed in the middle if a flat field, next to a shimmering lake. She trudged up toward the house silhouetted against the sun, casting a long shadow down the hillside. She smiled. That was one of the only part of her residence she enjoyed. Upon reaching the creaky, wooden door, she retrieved her house key and unlocked it. Entering the shabby shack, she breathed in the familiar scent of mothballs.

"I'm home!" she shouted, knowing that nobody could hear her.

She opened the door of an indoor outhouse, not even crinkling her nose at the horrific smell, since she was so used to it. But instead of a round hole, a dark stairwell led down, down, down. The faintest dot of light could be seen at the bottom. As she travelled lower and lower, the steps started to change from dingy, splintering wood to smooth, white quartz. **(A/N Haha! You thought she was poor! Got you! And do elves use quartz? Let's just pretend they do. ;))** The light at the end grew nearer and nearer, until she could make out a doorway to some shiny bright room. She continued to plod down, step by step.

Finally she reached the end and slipped off her shoes, kicking them to the side. She stepped in. "Hey, Mom," she said to a woman sipping lushberry juice and rifling through stacks of papers.

"Mhm," the woman murmured, not glancing up.

The girl headed over to another stairwell, this one measurably shorter. She tramped down two more staircases before turning into the room it passes. A canopy bed was against the corner to the right. Dozens of small windows peppered the far wall, with the entrance to the bathroom to the left. She walked over to a pile of stones in a corner and started stacking them on the windowsills. She arranged them so that it was still light enough to see, but shadows weaved in and out if everything. She sighed in contentment.

Suddenly her imparter buzzed. She picked it up and answered.

"Hey, Audrilla!" the caller said cheerily.

"Oh, hey, Eira."

"Are you free to come over? Like. Right now?"

"I guess, but I don't kn-"

"My mom baked Mallowmelt."

"Alriiiiiight."

"Great! See ya in a bit!"

* * *

Soon Audrilla arrived at Scattercrest in Mysterium. She had always thought that Eira's home was interesting. On the outside, the walls were color-blocked. There's a square of red, a square of blue, saffron, maroon. The list goes on and on. But it's all because of the inside. The walls of each room were painted differently. They had a Violet Room, a Cyan Room, and much more.

Eira greeted her at the front door. "Hey, Audi! How's it going?"

"I guess it's getting a teeny bit better. I've found a way to keep out most of the light in my room, and also have a bunch of shadows."

Eira placed her hands on her hips and cocked her head. "I just don't get why you crave darkness and shadows so much."

"It's my ability, remember?"

"Right. Then I just don't get Shades!"

"Mm." Audrilla nodded, not really wanting to continue the conversation.

"Anyways, do you wanna eat some Mallowmelt?"

Audrilla shrugged. "Sure, why not?"

Eira furrowed her eyebrows. "You sound unenthusiastic."

"Does it matter?"

"I guess not. Let's go!"

They strode into the Cream Room where Mallowmelt sat on the table. A piece was already taken from it, which was being eaten by a young boy in Level 2.

"Did Mom say you could?" Eira asked him.

"Yeah." He looked up and noticed Audrilla. "Hi, Drilly!"

"PLEASE don't call me that, Wren," she sighed.

"Why not? It fits you."

"Oh yeah?" she said in a challenging voice. "How so?"

"I don't know, but when you glare your eyes drill holes." He grinned.

"Aw, thanks! That's useful. But you still can't call me Drilly."

"You can't stop me, DRILLY!"

"I challenge you to a game of Base Quest." Audrilla smirked.

"You're on!"

"Uh, Wren?" Eira said timidly. "That might not be a good idea. Audi's brutal."

"Cool!"

Eira shrugged. "Oh well. You've been warned."

The trio headed outside. They paused at the edge of a colorful forest.

"Can I quest?" Wren asked.

Eira jumped in. "Nope! You'd be tagged, like, in two seconds."

Wren grumbled but obliged. "You're going down!"

The two ran off into the forest, leaving Eira to wait.

Wren chose his base, which was a large tree with twisted purple and pink branches. Audrilla took note of the shadows the tree cast. She saluted Wren, then bolted deeper into the forest and out of sight.

Audrilla snuck among the different and unique plants, using shadows to hide. Soon the base came into view, with Wren patrolling the area. Audi reached out her hand and twisted the shadows that fell around the tree, forming the words, "You don't know who you're up against". When Wren noticed the words underfoot, he looked genuinely shaken. Taking advantage of his vulnerable state, Audi stretched out her shadow until it touched Wren. She then shadow-whispered, "Just give up." He yelped and jumped half a mile in the air. Audi smirked and quickly retreated her shadow. She trekked a little closer before making her shadow extend to the side, then abruptly shift back forward. Now to Wren it looked as if Audi was standing several feet away than she actually was. When Wren saw her shadow, he dashed forward and burst through the brush. But he found nothing.

Instead he heard someone laughing. He turned to see Audi touching the base, a smirk playing across her face. "I told you to give up."

"You are the most creepy elf ever."

"Thanks."

Eira jumped to her feet when the two exited the forest. "Let me guess who won. Hmmmm..." She stroked her chin in sarcastic pondering. "I know! Wren, you won! I can tell by the look of utterly embarrassing defeat on your face."

"HA-ha."

"I told you not to meddle with Audi."

He groaned. "I guess I learned the hard way."

"What DID she do to you in there?"

Audi answered, "Only an extremely toned down version of what I did to you."

"Man, Wren! You got lucky!"

Wren's eyes grew wide with disbelief. "I WAS LUCKY?!"

Audrilla and Eira laughed.

* * *

The next day Audrilla headed toward her family's Leapmaster 500. She rubbed the skin of her left wrist and shouted, "Foxfire!"

"Hello, Audrilla." Audrilla's ability mentor greeted when she walked n and took a seat.

"Hello, Sir Vondal."

"Tell me, how have you used your ability since our last session?" Sir Vondal started every session this way.

"I dominated in a game of Base Quest."

"How so?"

Audi dove into a detailed description of yesterday afternoon.

Sir Vondal nodded. "Impressive. You are one if the most powerful Shades I've worked with."

Audi smirked. "If I'm one of them, who's another one?" she asked, curious.

His face turned mournful. "I've only trained one other prodigy as excellent as you. We were very close, but then he was sent to Exillium."

"What was his name?"

Sir Vondal took a deep breath. "His name was Tam Song."

* * *

 **Ooh! Kinda-but-not-really cliffhanger!**

 **Are my OC's personalities believable and interesting? Do I make up good Elven Names? The name Audrilla was inspired by my friend and her crush's ship name! :P LOL**

 **R &R! F&F! **

**Toodles!**

 **\- SequoiaBigandTall/Black Widow/Blotch/Cheetah/Bob/JuJuBe Squishy/Jello/Squirt/Auria66/Jubilee Bird/Henry/Jubo/BlaakHeart/Bad Mint/Saangqwup/Ketchup/Blank Square/Decoy/Trash Worthy/Flipped 8/NOT SHELLY!**


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